{"id":1461,"date":"2007-04-19T05:56:57","date_gmt":"2007-04-19T10:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/progress-i-guess\/"},"modified":"2007-04-19T05:58:03","modified_gmt":"2007-04-19T10:58:03","slug":"progress-i-guess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/progress-i-guess","title":{"rendered":"Progress, I guess"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At my glamorous <a href=\"http:\/\/contractpharma.com\" target=\"_blank\">day job<\/a>, I receive a ton of e-mail from PR firms. They pitch articles, send over news items, and announce events and new product launches. Sometimes, they enclose pictures, which is always nice; I can&#8217;t remember the last time I actually had to go to the &#8220;scanner pantry&#8221; to digitize a photo or chart.<\/p>\n<p>Wading through this stuff and still being able to put out a magazine requires some heavy-duty triage. I&#8217;ve developed some techniques for clearing out a ton of these items and saving the ones that look interesting or come from firms that I know are going to give me a call two days later to ask me if I read their e-mail (note to PR staff: this is one of the most irritating things you can do).<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, I received an announcement about a laboratory informatics group&#8217;s upcoming software user conference in Dubai. It contained the following image from a past event:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/vm\/images\/informat.jpg\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How progressive!&#8221; I thought. &#8220;They&#8217;re letting a ninja attend their conference!&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At my glamorous day job, I receive a ton of e-mail from PR firms. They pitch articles, send over news items, and announce events and new product launches. Sometimes, they enclose pictures, which is always nice; I can&#8217;t remember the last time I actually had to go to the &#8220;scanner pantry&#8221; to digitize a photo &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/progress-i-guess\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Progress, I guess&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-nz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4357,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lab-of-pain","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":0},"title":"Lab of Pain","author":"Gil","date":"August 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I try not to write about work too often, but sometimes I get a PR e-mail that I have to share. In this case, Algos Therapeutics has changed its name to Algos Preclinical Services. Not momentous or VM-worthy in itself, but how about that new tagline? Sadly, the company doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Business&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"algospain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/algospain.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4129,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-62909","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":1},"title":"What It Is: 6\/29\/09","author":"Gil","date":"June 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Plutarch's life of Aemilius Paulus, and a little of The Hunter, a Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) book. But I'm in the home-stretch for my Top Companies ish, so I've just been reading a lot of SEC filings, analyst reports and various pharma-bloggers. What I'm listening to: A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Aemilius Paulus\"","block_context":{"text":"Aemilius Paulus","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/aemilius-paulus"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0226770990","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/dark-saturday","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":2},"title":"Dark Saturday","author":"Gil","date":"September 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, the cassuolet was well-received, as was the chocolate cake. It was a nice evening all around, until the blackout around 8pm. We busted out a ton of candles, drank and bantered till around 11pm, at which point all 4 of us crashed out. Still no power today, so we've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;suburbs&quot;","block_context":{"text":"suburbs","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/suburbs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1865,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/a-map-of-miss-reading","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":3},"title":"A Map of Miss Reading","author":"Gil","date":"January 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Picking up my mail this afternoon, I noticed a Pottery Barn catalog with the tagline, \"NEW REDUCED DELIVERY CHARGES ON MORE THAN 65 ITEMS!\" My reaction? \"Why, if I order more than 65 items from these jokers, I sure hope I would get reduced delivery charges!\" Then I thought about\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13071,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-dmitry-samarov","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":4},"title":"COVID Check-In with Dmitry Samarov","author":"Gil","date":"April 4, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: Dmitry Samarov \"Each new apartment I have, there's this hope that it's the last one. Not like the final resting place, but the permanent home.\" Artist & writer Dmitry Samarov checks in from Chicago to talk about self-isolating in a packed-up apartment (he's supposed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sp20.jpg?fit=581%2C700&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sp20.jpg?fit=581%2C700&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sp20.jpg?fit=581%2C700&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4180,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-71309","url_meta":{"origin":1461,"position":5},"title":"What It Is: 7\/13\/09","author":"Gil","date":"July 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Killshot, by Elmore Leonard, and Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli. What I'm listening to: LP by Discovery, which was okay, but a little too deliberately like a poor man's Postal Service. What I'm watching: Just The Tall Guy (one of my favorite movies back in college, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Business&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FC12F0","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}